114735-starting-to-get-nervous-game-does-seem-to-be-dying
Content ---- ---- ---- I had a 'fall in love' moment last night too, I was out in Malgrave thinking it was a barren wasteland, then this mob of players tears past me like a pack of Mad Max barbarians across the desert shouting 'R12! Join us!' And I made some new friends, had a good time, went to bed a little more hopeful :) | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- Free transfers are open and the community has been encouraged to concentrate on two most popular realms on their side. I don't think that Avatus is one of them. | |} ---- ---- ---- People still play that game? :P last numbers I seen were 2.6million -active subs- that was in 2012 though. Edited: Just looked they're up to 2.7mil online not active subs. | |} ---- Avatus and stormtalon are the go-to servers for pve-ers from what i've heard. Lemmi check what ST is like EDIT: 24 max level on exile side. Thats still a kinda scarylow amount | |} ---- RP server is set up just like a PVE serverjust with RP in certain places. :P | |} ---- I know what it is, im just quoting population amounts. All in all, it looks like that for the majority of the time (i've done this across several servers for both factions several times now) there is only a couple of hundred max level players on. This may change during prime raiding times where theres maybe 1k or so but a large number of those will be locked in raids. | |} ---- OH you're looking at max level LOL okay ya I don't know, level isn't something I ever look at. I know I'm not even max level I like enjoying game to much to level I guess. Plus I'm slow anyways and busy with real life most of the time. I'd be on right now but all my guild does not log in till tonight anyways. They also are busy with real life during the day time. | |} ---- ---- ---- You're asking if people play the most popular MMO? You're acting as if 2.6 million subs is a bad number. Furthermore, the sub number of quarter 2 2014 was 6.8 million. | |} ---- Yeah some of the people have rose colored glasses about other MMOs 6.8million sounds about right for Q2 for WOW, it may actually go up in Q3 and Q4 even thought they are not meant to budget subs going up anymore as per the sandbagging business model. | |} ---- Really the only way to get a good idea of how many people have gone is look at your friends list, I have around only 3-4 of 40 friends that log on much anymore that may not be 100% accurate in saying I cant say they lost 90% of the playerbase and I don't definitively know if they have unsubbed, or are still subbed and not playing or have a bunch of credd like I do. But you could say there is a significant number not playing, and that is from someone who played only on Pergo. Other than people raiding of people who have scheduled pvp nights (not sure if those happen anymore) I can't see a reason to log on. I am sure the white knights like Mirta, Old Man Tek (I would say Nazrynn but he seems to have gotten a lot more real with the state of the game) will say that this is all normal life cycle, but I would be highly surprised if they have 150-200k active subs which is part of Carbine/NCsofts budget for this game as they were planning around US$9million per quarter (if some of those are credd instead of subs thats why I did the lower end part). | |} ---- ---- This is not exactly true, because WoW constantly grew during the "Hardcore or Shut up!" period. Even after it was done being brand new and that model was well known to it's then larger number of casuals. And there were same "Give casuals what they want or we will quit because of it!" threats on a daily basis. Even in Vanilla, going in to Burning Crusade. Only when Blizzard catered to the non-elite in Cata, with it's Looking for Raid and "bad friendly" content did it's subs ever decrease. | |} ---- ---- ---- I don't think megaservers are a band-aid. More like prep for surgery. The megaservers and Drop 3 and other changes may very well breathe new life into the game, but if and when the game does go F2P, having it on a megaserver will make the transition easier. | |} ---- Not to be rude, but this theory is bull. I played wow since the start of BC (so i cannot comment on vanilla), and right up until Cata. I was as casual as a player could be since i was in a boarding school with very little spare time. I was able to raid both in BC and WOTLK playing very casually. | |} ---- I wish WIldstar has even 1 million sub. :unsure: | |} ---- Correlation is not causation. You have to control for other variables like the LOW-HANGING FRUIT effect and the overall GAMERS ARE GETTING TIRED OF MMOS effect. | |} ---- ^ This guy know what he's talking about. | |} ---- ---- Yes, usually NCsoft games' death are unexpected yet obvious. | |} ---- His point wasn't to show causation; it was to refute the silly Idea that catering to hardcore content lovers is NECESSARILY bad for subs or makes a game unpopular. All the point was is that when done right, games can focus on more difficulty and still be well received. I did not get the idea that Dhar was suggesting focusing on hardcore content was the only factor that made games popular; just providing proof negative of a previous assertion. | |} ---- This guy gets it. There is little to no evidence that catering to the Hardcore crowd is detrimental to a game's lifespan. As the most popular and successful MMO that people use as the standard for which all other MMO's are judged, pretty much demonstrated the exact opposite of that. The "You need to cater to casuals!" line is just a feel good meme that isn't supported by any empirical evidence. | |} ---- It didn't refute the idea that catering to hardcore content lovers is necessarily bad. Why? Because when you control for co-variates like LOW-HANGING FRUIT effect you can discover that indeed, WoW could've had EVEN MORE SUBSCRIBERS. The negative effect is just hidden by the LOW-HANGING FRUIT effect, the cultural effects of the impact that WoW initially had (hype). It could have been even more numerically successful, following this hypothesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covariate | |} ---- Hardcore content wasn't the main reason. - Terrible itemization where adventure gear was equal to or better than dungeon gear played a huge part - Having a system that allows boosters to completely destroy PVP played a massive part - A rating system that gave you minus 40 for a loss and plus 10 for a win played a huge part - Exploits that went on for months without fix and carbines unwillingness to ban those who used them played a massive part. He'll there has been a Domi warrior that exploits his way out of the starting area of every blood sworn match for the past 2 months. Hundreds of people have reported him but here he is... Still doing it... It's absolutely frustrating because at its core, wildstar is the best game I've played since wow 2004 but with the above mentioned issues it's unplayable and I've lost all confidence that Carbine will actually fix it | |} ---- That is why I have no sympath towards Carbine studio. Its like they trying to push away legitmate players while keeping the exploiters. | |} ---- ---- ----